Breakfast Pie

I love breakfast. And I love pie. And I also love that it's socially acceptable to eat breakfast or pie for any meal of the day.

So this breakfast pie is basically awesomeness in pie form. Really. There's just no other way to describe it.


The original recipe called for bacon and an onion. As much as I love bacon, I really wasn't up to cooking bacon. So I bought Italian sausage and browned and crumbled that instead. I also bought the onion fully intending to use it, but completely forget it when I was cooking.

When I make this breakfast pie again, I'd like to try rolling the pie dough a little thinner. It was just a little too thick for my taste (that's what she said), and I felt like it still had somewhat of a raw flour taste. The Resident Taste Tester disagreed and seemed to like it as is.

I also think that some cheese would take this breakfast pie from awesomeness to orgasmic, but I leave that choice entirely up to you.

Also important to note, the cookbook that I used for this recipe is some wanky pastry cookbook with all the measurements and ingredients in British. Since none of us speak British, I have helpfully translated everything into English. You're welcome.

Breakfast Pie
adapted from Greatest-Ever Pastry Cookbook

For the Filling
2 tbsp oil
1 lb Italian sausage (mild or regular - your preference)
1 small onion, finely chopped (but no worries if you forget it)
5 eggs
salt and ground black pepper
a little milk, to glaze

For the Pastry
3 cups all-purpose flour
pinch of salt
3/4 cup butter, diced
5-6 tbsp chilled water

1. For the pastry, combine the flour and salt in a large bowl. Rub the butter into the mixture until it resembles breadcrumbs. Sprinkle over most of the water and mix to a pliable dough. Maybe it was me, but mine was super dry and I ended up adding extra water. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for 30 minutes.


2. Butter an 8-inch pie pan. Roll out two-thirds of the pastry and use to line the pan. Cover and chill for 30 minutes.


3. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Heat oil in a pan and add the sausage. Cook and crumble with a spoon until browned and cooked through. Add the onion and cook 2-3 minutes.


4. Cover the pie crust bottom with the cooked sausage and onion mixture. Break the eggs on top, spreading them evenly apart. Tilt the tin so the egg whites flow together. Season with salt and pepper.


5. Roll out remaining pastry, dampen the edges and place over the pie. Roll over the top with a rolling pin to seal the edges and remove excess pastry. Carefully cut curved lines from the pie's center to within an inch of the edge. Glaze with milk (be liberal on this or else it won't brown as nicely).


6. Bake for 10 minutes, then reduce to 350 degrees and bake for 20 minutes more.

Daring Bakers - Chocolate Marquise on Meringue

The May 2011 Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Emma of CookCraftGrow and Jenny of Purple House Dirt. They chose to challenge everyone to make a Chocolate Marquise. The inspiration for this recipe comes from a dessert they prepared at a restaurant in Seattle.

So holy crap! When they call these Daring Bakers things "challenges", they do in fact mean to challenge you.

Because I had no idea what a marquise is, and I'm still slightly hazy on the whole concept, I clung desperately to the original recipe with no real variation. Ok, so really no variations except to half it. The end result was delightfully delicious, but getting there made me thankful for the leftover tequila that didn't go into the dessert.


What you see in the picture is a chocolate marquise under a torched meringue with a tequila caramel sauce and spiced almonds.

More in depth, the marquise is an intensely rich pillow of soft chocolate with hints of cayenne and tequila. It is then softened in the fridge after freezing. It's not as hard as ice cream, but can't quite be called a mousse. Really, it's soft, sexy, and chocolate-y.

I can't take credit for coming up with the complimenting garnishes since they were the suggestions. But I enjoyed that the flavors in the garnishes, tequila in the caramel sauce and cayenne in the almonds, matched the flavors in the marquise itself.

I appreciated that this challenge really took me outside my baking comfort zone.

I played with hot boiling sugar not once, but twice, and lived to tell about it! I learned that I should probably invest in a candy thermometer instead of using, er, trying to hold a 4-inch meat thermometer in a pot of hot boiling splattering sugar as it reaches 235 degrees...

I borrowed a torch from a friend, which taught me that playing with fire in the kitchen is beyond fun and that I also need to invest in my own torch. Expect to see more fire coming out of my kitchen, preferably in the form of skillfully torched culinary masterpieces and not the kind that requires a fire department visit. Although that could be fun too...

And most importantly, this challenge emphasized the idea of fully reading through the entire recipe at least once before starting. I think I read this one at least 10 before starting. It took at least 3 tries to begin to understand what I needed to do, and another 5 times before I felt like I had a plan in place.


And to those of you Daring Bakers who casually mentioned that you did all your mixing by hand because you don't own a mixer, God bless you. The thought of whisking until soft peaks form makes my heart hurt. My little Kitchenaid earned its keep a million times over for this one challenge alone. So I salute you, hand mixing champions.

It would be a lie to tell you I fully enjoyed making this dessert. I used many swear words and was glad to finally serve it and be done. But I give massive props to any recipe this challenging that can withstand my blundering through it and still turn out so well. Thanks for the challenge ladies! Next month's challenge certainly has some big shoes to fill...